Alan Luber

In chapter 4 of my book, PC Fear Factor, I provide a step-by-step process for transitioning from your old computer to a new computer. The process includes all of the steps required to migrate your data from your old machine to your new, and how to install all of your...

You can talk about all of the things impacting our economy - government regulation, terrorism, the Fed's determination in 2000 to convert a virtuous cycle into a vicious cycle - but I think that there is another problem facing our economy: flawed business models....

Every day I'm bombarded with television commercials from broadband service providers in my area. Companies like BellSouth, Charter, AT & T, and Earthlink are competing relentlessly for my broadband dollars. And there isn't a single thing in any of their television...

From time to time, I like to write a column about a subject that is near and dear to my heart: customer service. Sometimes I use these columns as a forum to recognize companies who do an outstanding job of providing customer service. Sadly, I so rarely have positive...

I can't seem to get away from this subject. And it's so darn important, I'm not sure I want to. My earlier column, Back Up Blues, triggered some interesting responses. One reader inquired as to whether I had considered or tried another drive imaging product,...

In a previous article, I discussed the importance of backing up your entire hard drive (not just your data) periodically as protection against computer viruses. Of course, there are other equally important reasons to back up your entire hard drive. You can have a hard...

My readers know that customer service (or customer no-service) is a running theme throughout my articles. I am constantly aghast at the number of companies who don't understand that their real business is to provide customer service. You may gain a few customers with...

Well, I just can't seem to get away from this subject. You all keep writing, and in doing so, engender material for follow up columns. Hopefully, this will be the last for a while, but a couple of letters bought up important points that I wanted to address today.The...

I received so much feedback on my column (Stupid Accounting Tricks) that I thought I would respond en masse today and elaborate a bit on the subjects of pro forma accounting and managing earnings. First, the title of my column "Stupid Accounting Tricks" offended some....

Remember back in high school algebra when you were first introduced to the concept of imaginary numbers? That's a good way to describe quarterly earnings reports these days -- as imaginary numbers. In the old days, when a company reported quarterly earnings, you had a...

Most of the people I know are looking for ways to reduce expenses, either because they have lost most of their net worth, lost Wheir job, or feel they are about to lose their job. Not a very happy way to begin this column on personal finance,?but those are the cold...

With the death of Napster, eBay is the closest thing we have today to a broadband killer internet application. Since its inception, eBay has grown rapidly to its position of domination in the on-line auction market. It has been so successful that it's stock has been...

The other day, a colleague of mind was bemoaning the lack of killer internet applications to drive the demand for bandwidth. He noted that the only killer internet application was e-mail, and that it was a low bandwidth application. Well, I have a different...

There's an old saying that goes something like this: "Just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you." I urge all of you to be paranoid to the nth degree with respect to taking precautions to protect your computer against viruses and hackers....

Remember the movie Die Hard? At one point in the movie, Takagi (James Shigeta) says to Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman), "You want money? What kind of terrorists are you?" To which Gruber replies in one of the more memorable quotes from the movie, "Who said we were...

Previously, I told you that I would offer up my opinion of the one technology company to watch for evidence of a broad recovery in the economy and the markets. Today I make good on that promise. I told you that my choice would surprise you. It's not an obvious choice...

In one of my past columns, I discussed the challenges facing the deployment of broadband for the masses. I wish to re-visit that subject today. As my readers know, I recently switched from cable modem to BellSouth FastAccess DSL. In doing so, I learned that BellSouth...

Earlier this year, I wrote a column in which I argued that the only index that mattered was the Greenspan Index , that is, Alan Greenspan's personal unannounced targets for the Dow, S&P, and Nasdaq indexes. Today I'm here to tell you that the Greenspan Index doesn't...

I find that my expertise as a supply chain management consultant helps me a great deal with my investing strategy. These days, a lot of brokerages -- Morgan Stanley, Salamon Smith Barney, and Prudential to name a few -- are getting excited about the semi-conductor...

Last week, an article in the Wall Street Journal reported that Oracle had overstated the number of customers that it had for its most recent release (release 11i) of its applications. The article also implied that customers were not buying 11i or were not migrating...